The creature was waiting exactly where he had first seen it. Half-hidden behind cracked stones, it crouched low, muscles coiled tight beneath dark hide. Pale eyes watched without blinking, fixed entirely on him.
Kairo stopped several meters away.
This one was different from the grey entities he had fought before. It was like a pet of those entities. Four legs. Dense muscle packed over a lean frame. Narrow jaw lined with jagged teeth. Scars crossed its flank like old trophies.
'…Biological target confirmed.'
The beast answered with a low growl that vibrated through the stone. Kairo remained still. The wind passed quietly between them. Then it lunged. Fast. Far faster than the creatures before.
A blur of claws and snapping jaws tore through the space where his throat had been. Kairo twisted aside at the last instant. Talons scraped sparks from the rock beside him.
'…Speed increase detected.'
The beast landed, spun instantly, and attacked again. Kairo ducked under a sweeping claw. The force of it stirred his hair. As the creature passed, his fingers brushed across its shoulder.
Contact.
A faint dark ripple sank beneath the hide and vanished. The creature landed several steps away and turned.
No visible reaction.
'…Plague inserted.'
It charged again, jaws wide. Kairo stepped back, then sideways, forcing it to overshoot. Its body slammed into stone hard enough to crack the surface. Dust exploded outward.
Still no slowing. No confusion. No pain.
'…The suppressed state was successful.'
He let it keep attacking. A swipe tore through the sleeve of his shirt and opened three shallow lines across his ribs. Warm blood ran down his side. He ignored it.
Inside the beast, the plague rested like a buried seed. Dormant and contained. Waiting to be unleashed.
Kairo's eyes narrowed.
'…Control confirmed.'
The beast sprang again. This time he met it head-on. He pivoted, drove an elbow into its ribs, and used its own momentum to throw it sideways. Bone thudded against stone. Before it could recover, he stamped on its foreleg and leapt back.
Not enough to cripple. Only enough to test response.
Then he increased output. Inside the creature, the plague stirred. Not to attack but to multiply silently.
The beast rose snarling, still powerful, still fast. Kairo circled it slowly, blood dripping from the cut on his side. He was getting better at fighting.
'…Internal reproduction initiated.'
The beast lunged one final time
Then stumbled. Its front paw slipped. Muscles spasmed beneath the skin.
Kairo stopped moving.
'…Threshold reached.'
He opened his hand. Inside the beast, every dormant trace awakened at once. The reaction was immediate. The creature screamed. Its body convulsed violently. Dark veins spread beneath its hide like roots through soil. Foam burst from its mouth. It staggered, tried to flee, managed three desperate steps but then collapsed.
Dead.
Silence returned.
Kairo approached slowly.
The corpse still twitched.
'…Delayed activation yields high lethality.'
He crouched beside it and touched the cooling body, feeling the plague residue already dissolving.
'…Host terminated. Colony unstable after death.'
He stood watching for the next target.
---
Further ahead, movement caught his attention. Two smaller beasts scavenged among broken stones. Kairo walked toward them openly. One noticed him too late. He sprinted the final steps and drove a kick into its spine. The impact launched it forward into the second creature just as it turned.
Both crashed together in a snarling tangle. One scrambled upright and fled immediately and the other rushed him in blind panic. Kairo stepped aside and seized its neck with one hand, but its claws raked across his forearm before he released it.
Four deep lines opened in the flesh. Blood ran down to his wrist. Pain flared sharp and immediate but He barely glanced at it.
The fleeing beast vanished into the distance. He let it go. Intentionally.
The remaining creature snapped wildly, trying to bite him. Kairo adjusted the plague inside it.
This time
Not the organs but the nerves.
The beast jerked violently. Its left leg folded first. Then its jaw locked shut with an audible crack. Its body trembled uncontrollably, eyes rolling white, before collapsing in spasms.
'…Neurological disruption possible.'
He memorized the result. Then turned toward the direction the other beast had run. The plague remained inside it.
Silent and hidden. If it touched others the plague would spread.
Kairo looked toward the horizon.
'…Transmission confirmed.'
---
For hours, he continued.
A horned boar-like beast charged him through broken pillars. He sidestepped too late and was clipped by one tusk, tearing a groove across his thigh. He responded by infecting the lungs. The beast drowned standing up.
A six-legged scavenger leapt from above and sank teeth into his shoulder before he crushed its skull against a wall. He tested delayed muscular failure on that one.
A winged creature no larger than a dog sliced his cheek with hooked talons as it dove. He infected its vision first, watching it slam blindly into stone before finishing it.
Each became another test. He altered growth speed. Activation timing. Points of attack.
Lungs, Blood , Vision , Muscle and many other parts.
Sometimes he made pain trigger only when they tried to move. Sometimes only when they tried to breathe. He learned quickly and refined constantly.
By the time the dim light above began to fade, corpses were scattered across the broken land. Kairo stood among them, covered in blood—some his, most not.
Cuts marked his arms and shoulders. One gash along his thigh still bled slowly. Bite marks bruised purple across his shoulder.
They would slowly heal.
Perhaps in two or three days. Then he could test another trait.
Adaptive Body.
The name suggested potential.
And somewhere beyond sight, several infected beasts still ran free. Carrying fragments of him.
'…Long-range spread in progress.'
He opened the system.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
STATUS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Kairo
Rank: Chosen – Stage I
Resonance: 6%
Assimilation: 8%
Ability: Abyssal Plague
—-------
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'…Growth is acceptable.'
He closed the panel. Then turned back toward the village.
---
The stone walls came into view as dusk settled. Smoke rose from chimneys into the darkening sky.
Kairo slowed as he approached.
Movement came from the side path. Three people. Two men and one woman. They wore light leather armor stained with dust and dried blood. Muscles hung from their shoulders. Weapons rested at their sides. Hunters.
They noticed him immediately. The tallest man narrowed his eyes.
"Never seen you around here. Are you new here?"
Kairo stopped.
"Yes."
The woman looked him over openly.
"You went out alone?"
"Yes."
She glanced at the others.
"And came back alive."
Kairo said nothing.
The shorter man laughed.
"Either you are extremely brave or just stupid."
"…I am neither," Kairo replied.
The three exchanged glances.
The woman smirked.
"That one jokes."
"I did not."
She laughed softly. The tall man's eyes dropped to Kairo's empty hands.
"No weapon , armour or supplies."
A pause.
"What exactly were you doing out there?"
Kairo considered the question.
He was testing ability.
Learning combat and spreading disease.
Instead, he answered—
"Hunting."
Through the memories he saw that people lie to hide important information from others.
The shorter man barked a laugh.
"With what?"
Kairo looked at his empty hands, then at the blood drying across them.
He added,
"…Myself ?."
Silence followed.
Then the woman laughed harder than before.
"I like him."
The tall man remained cautious.
"Name."
"Kairo."
"I'm Dren. That's Lysa. The idiot is Bram."
"Oi," Bram muttered.
Lysa stepped closer, studying the cuts across his arms and the blood on his clothes.
"It doesn't seem like you are in a good condition."
Kairo met her gaze.
"I will be fine."
Dren turned toward the gate.
"Come on. Elder won't like people standing outside after dark."
They began walking. Kairo followed a few steps behind.
Lysa glanced back once.
"You really hunted with your bare hands?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
Kairo thought of the bodies scattered behind him.
"Enough."
She stared at him, then laughed again.